Importance of Blood Donation

I want to talk to you about the importance of donating blood. Some of you may know a friend or even a family member who has received blood at some time. I for one have received blood and I often wonder who took the time to donate it. According to the Journal of American Medical Association, it is noted that just 1 pint of blood can save three lives. Why You Should Give

Giving blood does not just benefit recipients. Regardless of age, donating blood offers many benefits for donors. It lets you: time-consuming tests. Then, it must be used relatively quickly or it will perish-whole blood for instance, according to the American Red Cross, is no longer usable after 42 days. As a result, maintaining an adequate blood supply is a challenge-especially when a disaster occurs, which may cause the need for blood to soar. The only way to meet demand is to have regular donations from healthy volunteers. If you are healthy, your body-which has between 10 and 12 pints of blood-can easily spare about a pint, the amount that is collected at a donation. Because the body begins replacing donated blood immediately, most people can give blood every eight weeks. I was reading an article called 600 reasons to donate blood. It stated perhaps donating blood could be considered one way of losing unwanted weight. D.A. Redelmeier estimated that one unit of blood reflects about 600 calories of food intake and that a single blood donation could offset either 2 hamburgers, 3 donuts or 5 granola bars. That in itself is a reason to donate if you want to get rid of unwanted calories. Understanding what prevents people from donating blood, or having donated, why they stopped donating, are important in devising strategies to get them to donate blood. Consider who you will be helping

The people who need blood come in all ages and from all ethnic and economic walks of life. They require transfusions to replace blood they have lost during surgery, because of accidents or internal bleeding, and to...